[KS] Inquiry about Kenneth Gardiner

[Mark Byington]

Dear Frank,

The following response is from Prof. Gardiner, who asked that it be
posted on the listserve.

Mark Byington 

---

With regard to the enquiry about my qualifications and background, I
should say that my original major at the School of Oriental & African
Studies in London was in Indian History, with specialization in the
history of pre-Muslim India. I also had to do papers in modern British
and modern European history, as well asstudying Sanskrit. I had quite a
bit of trouble with Sanskit,but coming into awareness of Chinese through
Jerome Ch'en, whom I met in SOAS, I became aware that I had basically a
visual memory, and I found Chinese characters much easier to remember
than the intricacies of Sanskrit grammar. As a result, after doing two
years of national service in the Air Force, when I went back to S.O.A.S.
in 1955, I got a postgraduate scholarship and took classes in Classical
Chinese, taught by Angus Graham, as well as a class in Chinese philosophy
by D.C.Lau. Eventually I undertook my doctorate in the early history of
Korea, especially the kingdom of Koguryo. While studying this at S.O.A.S.,
I received a Japanese Monbusho scholarship, and studied at Kyoto
University from 1959 to 1961 with Professor K. Arimitsu, eventually
returning to England and gaining my Ph.D.in 1964-- with many thanks to
Michael Loewe who went very conscientiously through the draft chapters of
my thesis.

I then returned to Japan,and for 18 months taught at a women's university
in Tokyo before getting the offer of a position teaching Chinese history
at the Australian National University in 1966. I have lived here in
Australia ever since.

Best regards,

Ken Gardiner



On Thu, 17 Mar 2005, Frank Joseph Shulman wrote:

> Does anyone know for certain Professor Kenneth Gardiner's ACADEMIC MAJOR at the time when he wrote the following dissertation at the University of London?
>
> GARDINER, Kenneth Herbert James  (1932- ).
> The Rise and Development of the Korean Kingdom of Koguryo from the Earliest Times to A.D. 313.
> Ph.D., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1964.
> Supervisors: W. G. Beasley and D. C. Twitchett.
>
> While I presume that he majored in History, for bibliographical purposes I wish to confirm that fact--particularly as his major might have been something related but different.  Professor Gardiner's academic major does not apppear in his thesis typescript, and I have not had any success over the past month in obtaining this information directly from various offices at the University of London.
>
> Thank you very much for kindly considering this inquiry.
> i
>
> Frank Joseph Shulman
> Bibliographer, Editor and Consultant for Reference Publications in Asian Studies
> 9225 Limestone Place
> College Park, Maryland 20740-3943 (U.S.A.)
> E-mail: fshulman at umd.edu
>
>